It's Royal Foodie Joust Time!

Hello, once again! Here we are, ready and rarin' for another Royal Foodie Jous!! Last month Michelle of USVFood won, and she was ingenius in picking mango, cardamom and brown sugar as her three ingredients for this Joust.

Naturally, about 84,000 recipes went flying through my mind!! Should I go sweet or savory? (I almost did both!!). I decided to go sweet this time. Here's my entry!

Mango, Cardamom & Brown Sugar Mascarpone Phyllo Tarts:

Ingredients:
- 3 to 5 sheets of phyllo pastry
- 1, 6 oz raspberry yogurt
- Two mangoes, peeled and sliced into bite-size pieces
- 4 to 6 oz mascarpone cheese (depending on how thick you want the consistency)
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp brown sugar
- chocolate shavings for the top

Instructions: Heat oven to 350F. Cut the phyllo sheets into circles about 4 inches in diameter. Lightly grease a muffin tin, then place each phyllo pastry round into the muffin cups, to form the tart cups. Bake for about 8-10 minutes until light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. In a bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients, with the exception of the chocolate, until well combined. Spoon mixture into the cooled tart cups carefully, then shave some of the chocolate on top (I used some of the yummy Vosges chocolate I got in my Blogging By Mail package!!). Serve immediately, otherwise they'll get soggy. Adapted from this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_34630,00.html

I've been making this recipe for about a year now, and I love it because it's fairly inexpensive, I can make it in a snap, and it always goes over really well. I only wish they had photographed better, because they looked so amazing! My friend Terry ate six in a row, one right after the other! I guess they really were that good!

~Mehgan~

Cooking For Friends

One of the biggest compliments about being an avid cook/baker is when a friend of yours comes to you asking you to make dessert for 10+ people. This happened to me last weekend, in fact. My friend Diana called me to let me know that we were invited to a potluck at her house on Friday night, and specifically asked that I make dessert. I was at work until 3pm and the party was at 6pm, so I had no idea what to make. I headed to the grocery store on the way home having nothing in particular in mind. All I knew was that these hungry people would need dessert (Yep, I'm in there, too):

As soon as I saw these perfectly ripe mangoes, I knew exactly what to make. Since most of the attendees are Italian, I wanted to incorporate wine into the dessert. So, here's my recipe for Grown-Up Mango Parfait:

Ingredients:

-2 ripe mangoes

-1/4 cup white wine (I actually used Riesling, since it's a dessert wine)

-1 tsp vanilla

-1 pint heavy whipping cream

-1/8 cup finely ground sugar

-10 small decorative cookies

Instructions: Peel and slice mangoes (carefully, they'll be really slippery) into bite-sized pieces. Place in saucepan with wine, cook over low-medium heat for about 45 minutes to an hour. Let cool. Whip the heavy cream with the sugar until it thickens. In a glass (I used martini and margarita glasses) place about two large spoonfuls of the mango mixture, then add a large dollup of the whipped cream. Top it with the decorative cookie (I used heart-shaped butter cookies with milk chocolate on one side and white chocolate drizzled on the other).

These parfaits were so lovely, and a nice accompaniment to the dinner. I didn't want to make something heavy that would take a lot of babysitting, since I knew I would be consuming adult beverages and didn't want to worry about burning it. They went over well, I even caught a few people licking the inside of their glasses.

~Mehgan~